Americans

Are Fatter

Than Ever

One-third Of Adults

Obese, Study Says

July 17, 1994|The New York Times

American adults may be more aware of the need to exercise and count calories than they once were, but more of them than ever are overweight.

The number of overweight adults, which had remained stable at about a fourth of the adult population from 1960 through 1980, jumped to a third of all adults between 1980 and 1991, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study says.

For the study, obesity was defined as being 20 percent or more above a person's desirable weight. That is about 25 pounds for an average 5-foot-4-inch woman and 30 pounds for an average 5-foot-10-inch man.

The increase in obesity rates continues despite a growing awareness that it has a negative effect on health and despite the continued growth of the diet industry, estimated to have revenues of $40 billion to $50 billion a year.

The study's figures on children were not available, but experts who had seen the data said that obesity among the nation's youth was increasing at a faster rate than it was among adults.

Although the study confirms what experts have said they suspected, it is the first time the growth of the problem in the 1980s has been measured.

The data on American weight patterns have been collected in several government surveys that began in 1960. The studies are designed to determine the relationship between diet and health and help the government implement food assistance programs.

The new study found that the groups with the highest proportion of overweight people were black non-Hispanic women, at 49.5 percent, and Mexican-American women, at 47.9 percent. Those levels represent increases of 12.2 percent and 15.7 percent, respectively, compared with the 1980 rates.

Although the percentage of white non-Hispanic women who are overweight is lower, 32.4 percent, obesity in that group increased at a much higher rate, 35.6 percent, from 1980 to 1991.

The study offers more support to health and nutrition professionals who say that a national campaign to reduce obesity is essential to contain health care costs.

Dr. Philip Lee, assistant secretary of health in the Department of Health and Human Services, said on Friday, "The government is not doing enough. It is not focused. We don't have a coherent across-the-board policy. We are in the process of developing one."

On Tuesday, the Journal of the American Medical Association will publish an article based on the study's findings about adults.

In an editorial that will accompany the article, Dr. F. Xavier Pi-Sunyer, a professor of medicine at Columbia University, wrote: "The proportion of the population that is obese is incredible. If this was about tuberculosis, it would be called an epidemic."

Pi-Sunyer wrote that obesity is difficult to treat. "What you want to do is prevent it," he wrote.

Despite the relationship between obesity and heart disease and other ailments, obesity is usually not defined as a disease. Neither the government, insurance companies nor the medical profession devote many resources to preventing obesity.

"There is no commitment to obesity as a public health problem," said Dr. William Dietz, director of clinical nutrition at the New England Medical Center in Boston. "We've ignored it and blamed it on gluttony and sloth."

Experts agree that the root causes of obesity in this country - a sedentary lifestyle and an abundance of food - are very difficult to change.